Otherwise, people are culturally Buddhists. They attend rituals and chant mantras, but lack the aspiration to be instrumental in awakening beings to realize the truth (the mind of bodhichitta). As a result, their practice is merely a form without substance and will not result in liberation, either for themselves or others. 

The people you mention may fall into these categories. Sadly, they have not had the opportunity to learn from an authentic teacher and so although they appear to be devoted Buddhists, they are actually conducting materialistic or cultural activities in the guise of Buddhism.    

Unfortunately, in these times, this is a common tendency. Is this wrong? No, but it is like using the highest quality gold leaf as toilet paper. It works, but, wow, what a waste of such a precious material. 

How, then, can we use the Dharma to its full capacity? The answer lies in the Buddha’s very first teaching after he awoke to the truth under the bodhi tree. He said that life is characterized by suffering, or more precisely, discontentment and disappointment, while adding that there is a way out of suffering. 

Now, the root of suffering is ignorance, which is countered by seeing reality. What is ignorance? It is to consider everything as permanent and substantial, whereas seeing reality is to recognize that nothing is any more real or enduring than a rainbow, a fantasy, or a dream. You can read the ‘Four Seals of Buddhism’ to gain more clarity on this.

Now, the aim of practice is to awaken from this dream, not to try and make it more comfortable, which, in any case, is impossible in the long-term. 

Why is this so? Well, in addition to the suffering of birth, sickness, and death that every living being must face, the inevitability of change means that anxiety and fear are always bubbling under the surface. 

We enjoy time with our loved-ones, but an underlying sadness that the gathering will soon end taints the enjoyment. We have a happy family, but fears of illness and misfortunes disturb our sleep. Our business is doing well, but news of an impending economic turndown or the discovery of a new virus taints our mood. 

In addition, there is a pervasive suffering that is associated with perceiving the world in a specific way and then becoming attached to that view, thinking it to be real. 

To most of us, four legs and a top is a table, but is it ultimately so? To an indigenous person in the Amazon jungle, it might be considered a boat. A goat might perceive it as a place on which to stand, while a young child will likely see it as a hiding place. 

Put in another way, nothing, including our own bodies, exists beyond the labels that we attach to a jumble of components that temporarily join together. 

As nothing truly exists in the way we see it, our world is just a fabrication of our mind, which, as stated above, means that everything we perceive is no more real than an illusion or a dream. 

Here is an example of how this wrong view creates suffering, while seeing reality brings it to an end. A young boy attends a tshechu/ religious festival and is terrified by the mask dancers. His mother tells him that they are not monsters but monks in costume and other family members distract him with treats, but to no avail, and he is still terrified. 

During an interval, his mother escorts him to the bathroom, and on the way he passes the changing area. With his own eyes, he is able to confirm what his mother told him, that the monsters are just monks wearing a mask. From that moment onwards, he will never be scared by the dancers again. 

Do you see how seeing reality eliminates fear? Put another way, once we realize that the monsters in our dream are not real, they no longer scare us. 

Now, as stated above, the sole aim of the Buddha’s teachings is to awaken us to reality in order to be instrumental in liberating others. Anything else is nothing more than ice-cream given to a child to distract his mind from illusory monsters. 

Instead of ice-cream, we seek worldly success and status as distractions, which we pray for at monasteries or chortens. However, like the dessert they are useless, because the basis of the fears is unreal. In this respect, only waking to reality can bring suffering to a permanent end. Without this realization, we are like the boy at the tshechu had he not seen the monks removing the masks – always in a state of fear, requiring constant reassurances and distractions. 

To sum up, only a practice that counters ignorance and nudges us towards realizing reality is an authentic Buddhist practice. In contrast, practices that preserve ignorance, such as those conducted for worldly goals, are Buddhist in form only. 

How can we identify a genuine Buddhist practitioner from one who practices as a cultural habit or for material gains? Well, I guess the main difference is that a real practitioner, especially one who has gained some insights into reality and recognizes the illusory nature of the world, would be humble and not interested in cheating others or fighting over property. In fact, to such a person these kinds of deeds would be considered nothing more than the games of confused children. 

So, do not lose interest in practice due to the harmful behavior of some practitioners, but instead remember that Buddhism and Buddhists are two very different entities. 

In conclusion, a person who has access to Buddhist teachings, but, for whatever reason, doesn’t use them to gain liberation and benefit others is similar to the beggar in the Buddhist parable: 

“A wealthy man sews a jewel in a beggar’s robe so he will no longer have to live in poverty. However, the beggar does not realize that he has this wealth and so continues to live as a pauper.” In this respect, rather than condemn the people you mentioned, sympathize that even though they possess a priceless ‘liberating-jewel’, they are unaware of it, and so waste their lives seeking escapes from illusory monsters